Been a while.

Yes indeed folks it has been a while since I last posted – welcome back to Thoughts and Topics where we just talk about odd topics and possibly video games.

Lately I have been busy with a new gig I signed on with; work is work and it requires time so here I am with limited time to invest in my hobbies and interests. Content will appear from time to time but this blog is not a primary focus of mine so don’t expect regular posts daily like some of the other professional bloggers out there – in any case I felt like talking about the Canadian army reserves today for the topic.

Looking over Ford Rangers and Toyota Technicals that are used by less-funded armies and guerrilla forces, it occurred to me that the army reserve probably needs to invest in light vehicles like Ford Rangers and so on to mount machine guns and provide fire support platforms wherever needed. Presently as it stands the reserves is badly funded and the hours of work and so on make it difficult for many Canadians to enlist in the reserves – the difficulty in training also doesn’t help.

Now training has to be challenging in order to prepare soldiers, but when you take wholesale regular force values and apply it to a part-time reserve force problems occur; an example of this is training requirements and so forth.

Soldiers in the full time army can train day and night as they are enlisted to serve full time, whereas part time soldiers have civilian jobs to handle and thus need to focus on core skills rather than miscellaneous items that the regular force can cover. Indeed interchangeable units is a nice theory, but practically the reserves should be focusing on localized defense, and rendering assistance to civil authorities in cases of emergencies.

Core training for a reservist should ideally focus on basics like drill, weapons training, first aid, and coordinating with civil authorities. While a base line fitness level is needed, expecting the reservists to be super soldiers when they lack time to work out for lengthy sessions like the regular force will cause many to walk away from the recruiting table and seek employment elsewhere.

Another thing is pay; 4,000.00 CAD after taxes is what a reservist can expect to take home – the hours are pretty bad as well. Imagine being tired after an 8-hour shift at your day job and then having to spend another 3 pecking away at small tasks that seem to lead nowhere in terms of professional development – reservist life is what this entails.

The idea for more hours is that reservists could do two hours on a weekday and a half day on Saturday every week – this will provide more time and still keep with the concept of a military reserve without causing too much stress on the serving personnel who have other things to attend to and face challenges from employers that regular force soldiers currently do not.

The problem with this, however, is one Ottawa would have to spend more money on the reserves, and if things change in the States Ottawa would back away from a promised funding boost like it was a hot plate and they had no gloves. Next is NDHQ, they would have to abandon the whole interchangeable unit concept and start focusing on mission-specific organization instead – this means the the regular force would perform all expeditionary duties while the reserves would focus on home defense and civil aid; difficult to comprehend for a command staff that is too busy jockeying for power with politicians to care about a proper functioning armed forces.

All in all the summary of this rant is this; reserve soldiers need a specific mission, more equipment to meet that mission, and more funding and training alongside a re-organization of their work week – do this and you will see a healthy increase in numbers as soldiers will feel as though the reserves will not take up too much of their spare time and employers will not feel that a worker will be gone for long periods and thus productivity of the worker is lost and they have to fill their role with a temporary worker. In the end it comes down to appeasing employers who need their workers, and Ottawa to step up, re-organize and fund the reserve – until this happens we will continue to read articles and see news reports of underfunded, undermanned reserves that are unable to meet national defense needs.